A reflection on the bombing of the Cafe Argana, Marrakesh, on the 28th of April 2011.
Life is noise and death is silent.
The instant crack stops the crowd's murmur
and the now quiet air is tainted
with the bomb's exhausted breath.
The crowd, at first exhaled in fear,
is sucked back with curiosity.
We shelter in a lamp shop.
The dead sit like mannequins at their cafe tables
backlit by flame,
a scene from Hell's tea room,
and the people raise their right arms
and salute them with the clicking of camera phones.
Click, click, click.
The rest is silence.
Copyright (c) Woodgrange December 2011
